Short Biography of Mary Pickford

A short documentary of Mary Pickford by Gary Lynch, Adam Wendler, and Chapin Waite.

Music Video Review

"Doesn't Remind me" written by Chris Cornell, Audioslave
Directed by Chris Milk
Video released in 2005

What I like most about this video is that the band doesn't make one appearence. I find there is a powerful story told, and the presence of the band would in some way take away from that feeling. The camera appears to be hand held, shaky, and out of focus in the beginning. there is a poster of some amercian Idol pointing out at you, although I dont know who he is, I am immediately interested because of the effects. The protagonist of the story is clearly the boy playing with a toy jet. The viewer quickly learns that the boy idolizes his father, who is assumed to be off at war. This adds much more character depth and allows the viewer to really get into the shoes of this kid. at 15s, right when the first base drum kicks, the scene switches to an interesting view above, and focused on, the airplane the boy is running around with. I find this unique camera angle intriguing. It also makes me visulize a real jet flying through the air, which relates to his father. At 31s there is a shot of the boy on a rope, the camera is focused on the boy, and spins with him while the rest of the world is in a blur. As he's smiling and laughing (and i find the colour of his shirt also adds to the effect) the viewer can feel a sense of innocents about him.

The intensity of the video increases with the intensity of the song. When the chorus is first played there is a quick succesion of scenes that show the boy running, hitting things, and training more aggresively then he was depicted earlier in the video. just prior to the solo there is a scene of the boy and his mom driving and we see images in the window of the car created by the rain. This alows the viewer to get inside of his head and see how he is constantly thinking about the war, it sets you up for the climax in the solo. The intensity increases ten-fold during the solo when the boy is in the ring. As the boy is about to make contact with his punches the camera switches to his father's death in the war (I'm assuming). The camera effects while shooting the fight together with the simple camera shooting the dog fight, together with the rising intensity of the guitar solo, also together with the knowledge of what is happening to this kid's dad, I find creates an extremely powerful image. At this point, the camera switches briefly to a still shot (which is important because it takes away from the intensity of "shaky" camera during the fights) of the mother as she receives the phone call about her husband. The director has done such a great job that at this point that I can almost put myself in their shoes. Another great camera angle is when the boy throws his airplane into the water (3:35), the camera is focused infront of the plane, the kid is a blur in the backround and you get the feelings your slowly floating away. An odd aspect of the video is how it flashes to scenes of happy-ness, to destruction, and depression, quickly as the solo ends.

I am left feeling satisfied in the end. Its is bright day out, the kid and his mom are out in a green field and he is playing with his planes again. There is an interesting camera shot of the boy's feet as he runs through the field, and another interesting shot of the boy as he releases the plane (it feels like the camera is on the plane).

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